Sorting out sanctions, censorship, sincerity in Burma

On Thursday, the United States rolled back
prohibitions against American companies doing business in Burma. The
announcement marked the latest diplomatic reward given to President Thein
Sein's quasi-civilian government for initiating reforms in what has
historically been a military-run country. In making the announcement, U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the democratic changes initiated so far
were "irreversible," but that is a characterization few of the country's
journalists would share.

The government has flip-flopped on media regulations in the past
few days, a troubling indicator that there might be no media policy at all
in place. First, the official version: The government-owned newspaper and
website published by the Ministry of Information, New Light of Myanmar, reported that
Information Minister Kyaw Hsan met with several journalists and writers' groups
earlier in the week, pledging to "cooperate fully" with all the associations as
the ministry drafts a "print media law, gradually but systematically releasing
the grip over press in order that journalists can practice in harmony with that
law after its ratification." The government has also said it plans to get a new
media law through parliament in the coming months. But that doesn't mean there
will be no censorship. After the government forms a press council, publications
will be allowed to go to press under what it calls a check-after-publish system,
New Light of Myanmar reported. Under current conditions, all copy must be submitted
to censors first, and then be printed and distributed.

The minister said the press council would eventually replace
the government's current censorship arm, the
Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), but the council would remain
under his ministry's control. The proposed regulations stipulated that the press
council must ensure that journalists abide by the 1962 Printer and Publisher
Registration Act and the Ministry of Information's still-standing 12-point
censorship policy.

That did not sit well with Burma's press corps. The
exile-run Irrawaddy news site reported
on Thursday that three Burmese media groups--the Myanmar Journalists
Association, the Myanmar Journalists Network and the Myanmar Journalists
Union--objected to the proposed rules for the soon-to-be-created press council.

Then today, Friday, PSRD Deputy Director Tint Swe told
journalists that they could "forget about" the three-page proposal for press council
regulations that Kyaw Hsan had handed out earlier in the week, journalists who
took part in that meeting told Irawaddy.
The PSRD will not insist that the journalists and writers groups follow the
proposed regulations, they said.

That sort of U-turn raises questions about whether the government
has thought out its approach to media, or if it is just dishing out edicts to
see how they play in the eyes of the public and of the diplomats who control
Burma's integration into the global community.

During the transition from military to quasi-civilian rule, censorship
has eased informally, especially over economic matters and the opposition led
by pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, but there are still no-go areas for
local reporters. Newspapers do not report on the ongoing conflict with ethnic
Kachin rebels in the country's northern frontier. More recently, the PSRD
banned reporting on the resignation of hard-line Vice President Tin Aung Myint
Oo for apparent health reasons. And no local paper has dared to push boundaries
by investigating and reporting on past abuses under the previous Than Shwe-led
regime.

All the while, journalists remain
under threat of the Printer and Publisher Registration Act that was implemented
after military takeover and that allows for imprisonment for "harming the
ideology and views" of the government. The vague and arbitrary Ministry of
Informaton's 12-point censorship policy still broadly bars any reporting on
matters considered a threat to national unity or security.

Zaw
Thet Htwe, a formerly jailed journalist and current organizing committee
member of the Myanmar Journalists Union, told Irrawaddy that his group would
not join the press council under the rules that, until today, had been the standing proposal. "Our union aims to protect freedom
of expression and journalists' rights, but based on the minister's description
of the Press Council's role, we are reluctant to participate in it," he told Irrawaddy.
"I don't think that the press council will be different from the old censorship
board if it includes former members of the PSRD."

Whether Friday's U-turn was a genuine response to
journalists' concerns; or there is conflict between government officials or
departments; or the left hand simply doesn't know what the right hand is doing,
the situation appears closer to chaos than to an earnest and measurable process
of media reform. In announcing the removal of restrictions on U.S. companies
investing in Burma, the White House acknowledged in a statement that Burma's
reforms are still "nascent" and that certain sanctions would remain in place as
an "insurance policy." That policy may yet come due.

Bob Dietz, coordinator of CPJ’s Asia Program, has reported across the continent for news outlets such as CNN and Asiaweek. He has led numerous CPJ missions, including ones to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Follow him on Twitter @cpjasia and Facebook @ CPJ Asia Desk.